How To Teach Your Children To Be Compassionate Towards Animals

Is your toddler a tyke towards animals? Pulled tails, smacking, and generally harmful behaviour shows that your little one fails to identify an animal as a living thing that needs kindness. Teaching your child to be compassionate towards animals will reach out to human beings during key development stages, making your kid averse to violence and hurting others.

Children that are kind to animals are more likely to grow up humane, caring, and law-abiding. Compassion is one of the most important values you can teach your little one, as there’s often a link between people who are abusive towards animals and people who are violent towards human beings.

Be Kind To Animals

Lead by example. Reflect on your own actions towards animals. Even if the household pet is irritating you, don’t shout hurtful things towards it or hit the animal. Where possible, include your pet in family life; allow it to live inside with everyone else and treat it as an extension of your family. Make time to play with the animal.

When unwanted creatures enter your home, such as spiders or beetles, don’t kill them. Safely escort them outside. Avoid saying negative things about animals, such as “I hate chickens” or “dogs are annoying.”

Welcome Wildlife Into Your Garden

Work on making your garden animal-friendly. This means planting flowers and plants that attract butterflies and bumblebees. Hanging bird feeders will attract all sorts of feathered friends into your back garden. Make your home a haven for animals and positively reinforce being respectful towards them.

Read Books And Watch Films

Reading books about animals to your child will help develop empathy. Films, such as Bambi and Babe, do the same. This is one time when it’s okay to actively encourage your little one to sit in front of the box.

Adopt A Pet

Going to an animal shelter can help your child identify how everyone needs a loving home, including dogs and cats. Let your little one know that animals which have been abused and neglected need extra love; also explain that the dog or cat may be scared to begin with, so everyone must be gentle with it.

Make a decision together about which pet to adopt and encourage your kid to bond with it. Animals often display very human behaviour, and hopefully your child will pick up on that. Give your new pet a name and a birthday to be celebrated every year.

Go For A Day Out

Every family needs to make the time for a day out. Take your child where the animals are. Whether this is on a long walk in a forest or to the nearest zoo, it’s up to you.

If you go to a safari park, chat about the importance of conservation for animals that are close to extinction and explain the rudiments of evolution – how we are all animals really and that other species are not so different from us.